GDB 50.0 Wrap up: Blame the All-Star break

4-1-1 in the last six games isn’t bad, right? Final score: 4-3 Avalanche.

We haven’t seen a lot of Oilers hockey lately. This was the first game in seven days for the Oilers and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for us. We’ve silently won four out of the last five games but due to the long gaps in our schedule it certainly doesn’t feel like it.

The first period wasn’t anything special. We got outshot 10-8 however the Corsi ruled in our favour. The Oilers came out playing pretty solid and got a couple decent scoring chances on Jonathan Bernier. It seemed like both teams weren’t taking too many chances out there as the Oilers were playing their first game in seven days and the Avs were trying not to lose their fourth straight.

We had ourselves a much more entertaining period in the second thank god. Granted we finished it down 2-1, the Oilers still played well 5v5. Special teams on the other hand…. is worthy of a whole other article. Connor McDavid and my new favourite backup goalie, Al Montoya, were the highlights of the period and if you ignore the minor giveaway at the end of the 1st, they did wonderful things to my eye holes. Unfortunately the giveaway happened, and we left the ice down 3-1.

The third period was bitter sweet in my opinion. AMAZING that we made the two goal comeback and sent the game to overtime… but I can’t help to think of all the missed chances we had by choosing to force a pass instead of shooting. I feel like that’s been one of many themes this season for the Oilers. McDavid’s late game heroics are also a great theme this season but unfortunately we couldn’t finish what he started in overtime. The OT goal was pretty hard to watch. It was a combination of confusion and awkwardness, and I wish I could erase it from my memory.

The wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

You got to hand it to Al Montoya who started his first real game in Edmonton since November 4 when he played for Montreal. He hasn’t had the easiest year being traded and then getting thrown into three games after Talbot gets pulled, but he started the game off really well tonight. Anyone else curious how he would have played if he WOULD have talked to the media this morning? ?

Montoya made a hella nice diving save in the second period after the Avs had sustained pressure for a few minutes in our zone. That’s good backup goalie entertainment right there.

The first period wasn’t the most entertaining game but the fact that we got through it without any goals makes me pretty satisfied. Especially since we’re playing a relatively hot team (minus the last three games and the fact that their star player is injured) and that we haven’t played in a week. I’ll take any positives the hockey gods will throw at us right now!

Connor freaking McDavid with another highlight reel goal in the second period to cut the Avs lead in half. He deflects a Draisaitl pass on net and then bats the puck out of mid-air into the goal with such ease. Scoring insanely difficult goals and making it look so so easy is just the Connor way to do it!

Zack Kassian was on an absolute rampage in the third period and levelled Comeau from behind at the beginning of the third period. I’m putting this in the bright side because I love when Kass gets wild and throws his weight around, but he’s REALLY lucky he didn’t get a penalty there.

After getting his first goal taken away, Drake Caggiula potted his 7th of the year early in the third period to cut the Avs lead in half. He continues to be one of my top two favourite Drake’s in the world.

The LOOOOOOOOCH train came flying at full speed in the third period where he absolutely destroyed Lindholm with a clean body check. Watching Lucic come at you in full speed is something I hope I never have to see in my lifetime.

It’s always great to see Nail Yakupov again. He’ll always be one of the most entertaining Oilers to play on our team and I will forever miss him. AND to boot, he didn’t even score on us!

CONNOR MCDAVID, my gord. I was just thinking about how I’m going to finish up this article and BAM! McDaddy ties the game with seconds left to send it to overtime. What a roller coaster this third period has been.

THE FACE PALMERS

The Oilers had a tough start to the second period and were unable to clear the zone. One blind pass up the boards from Andrej Sekera later and the Avs put themselves up 1-0 after an unassisted goal from Zadorov.

The penalty kill strikes again. After Darnell Nurse took a cross checking penalty in the second period, it didn’t take long for Sam Girard to score his first goal of the season on a screened shot from the point….breaking yet another scoring drought. #JustOilerThings

Drake Caggiula scored a goal in the second period. After what may have been the strangest sequence of reviews ever, it was ruled no goal because Drake directly pushed Bernier’s glove into the net when he had it covered. Bold tactic, I like it, but unfortunately that’s never going to count. I STILL BLAME THE REFS THOUGH!

I might have praised Montoya a little too quick. A tough giveaway by him in the second period led to a breakaway for Blake Comeau who potted an insurance goal shorthanded. *spits*

I’m not saying that McDavid would have scored if he chose to shoot the Draisaitl feed in the slot instead of passing it to Cammalleri in the third period…. but I would have like to see him try.

Man the third period was frustrating as hell. We absolutely deserved to tie the game up but how many times did the Oilers have opportunities to shoot at a high difficult area, but chose to pass instead? So hard to watch when you’re down by one and we’re giving up all these gorgeous chances by trying to pass through two defenders.

BOOOOOO to overtime losses! Not sure what happened with that goal… everyone just got caught watching the puck and until it found it’s way to the back of the net. Wish that overtime would have went a little better.

Get this, we only took one penalty tonight! Cool right? WRONG! We ended up getting scored on it. Better yet, is that we ALSO gave up a shorthanded goal! Not sure what that does to our special teams stats… but it can’t be good.

THE SECOND HALF NATIONDRAFT

The first regular season NationDraft is coming to an end, which means we’re ready to introduce our mid-season NationDraft! This is your chance to put your failures of the first draft behind you, and pick a whole new team. The first half of the season is behind us and we have a pretty good idea of who the scoring leaders are and how the league is trending. If you’re one of the lucky ones who nailed their picks the first time, you can pick the same team and just make a couple adjustments. Then you’ll be on your way to one of our awesome grand prizes!

Kassian’s got size and speed but he reminds of a young Darnell. Doesn’t make the best plays positionally or mentally. The difference being, Darnell learned and became really good as a result. Kassian may be older but he has to figure out the game from a strategic perspective. The hustle is there already

Ok, McDavid is amazing we all know this. But where the heck is the resort of the team? There is no secondary scoring right now. Drai is struggling and special teams once again struggle. Does anyone know what chia “strong plan” is anyways? Is there a copy of it floating around somewhere?

Struggling is a stretch. He’s playing good. Quite good even. But the reality of the cap era, there’s 8.5 million reasons why he needs to play even better (as he did last year). I’m pretty confident he’ll find another gear more consistently throughout his contract.

Lowetide had a great article the other day about Drai…. his 5×5 scoring is actually up from last year as is a few other of his stats, PP scoring is down which sways the idea he is bad this year, also he played way more with McDavid last year…. this is basically his 2nd FULL season in the NHL, I believe he has more to give over the time of his contract.

Itll likely takes 100-102 points to get a wild card spot this year which means the Oil need another 52 points in there remaining 32 games. 26 and 6 will get it done. Gulp. Start thinking draft people.http://www.espn.com/nhl/standings/_/type/wildcard

I’ve been saying that for sometime now… That noted the oil have a lot of games ahead against teams that they have done pretty good against so far (read: the pacific division) and some might view that as a glimmer of hope.

Hahaha this. I literally texted a buddy the moment Drake and Strome came out saying “GG”. Sure enough they score thirty seconds or so later. Another gem of a coaching decision from Todd Mac. Strome might be our slowest player next to Luc and Drake is by far the worst defensively. Better throw em out there. Why is it that oiler fans can see these things but not the coaching staff? Why not JP? What does he have against JP that he hasn’t earned more shots that Drake and Strome?

Flames are humming along not bad, they won 7 in a row before losing the last 6, 4 of which were in overtime so they still got 4 points, so 18 points in 13 games is OK.
Yes I’m a Flames fan, but I never miss an Oiler game on TV, I like the team and it makes me sad to see Taylor freaking Hall in New Jersey, you guys could have hit out of the park.
BTW, Flames are not winning a cup either, don’t expect them too, so along as they play entertaining hockey and never give up I’m happy, they out shot Tampa 44-31 tonight, should have won but thats the way hockey goes, great game though and the Oil played pretty good as well, it just seems that Charrelli has traded away to many stallions for donkeys.

The first period was disappointing for me, Avs were flat and we became flatter. The way we play at home is concerning and the PP is lacking confidence. I wish Conner would shoot it will open up passing lanes for kid instead of passing through 3 pairs of skates

I do. But knee drop talbot doesn’t seem to, or oilersnation as they are always complaining that talbot is on his knees. So I thought I’d say the same about Montoya and it’s a different reaction. Funny how that works around oilersnation lol.

Agreed that Caggiula’s goal shouldn’t be counted but still…First, a goal called on the ice. Second, after the review confirmed the puck cross the line so it is a good goal. Third, coach’s challenge and ruled as interference and no goal.

You wondered that the refs would have seen goalie interference upon first review but somehow that they waited for Avs to challenge it? No wonder the refs suck, they don’t call anything anymore and way more dependent on challenges and reviews than coaches to make the call. Can they still do their job if the league take away the challenges?

Well, as far as we know by know, Drai is capable of scoring round about two thirds of McDavids Points. Currently it’s even closer to 2.5/3. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t dare to compare Drai to McDavid and his status for the organization, but it is not out of this world to say 2/3 of points = 2/3 of money. And that is simply that what he gets. So it’s fair to say that IF McDavid had taken a REAL hometown discount of 10.5 to 11, then Chia would have been able to sign Drai for 6.5-7.5, which is much closer to that what he is actually worth. I am also convinced that Chia could have signed Drai for that kind of amount, if he only had signed him first. With about 4m of more cap space, the Oilers world would look much different now and in the years to come…

So let me guess this right. I was a dumbass a fell asleep so I completely missed the game. But on the disallowed goal. They reviewed it 3 times, twice ruling it was a goal, only to disallow it when the coaches challenge was issued?

I think kve found the problem here. We all womder what happened to the team who would crash the net, put a big body in front. Well, maybe they don’t do it because any goal they score would be called back.

This team is broken and I blame the league. 15 straight review calls against the Oilers and this team feels deflated. They feel they can’t beat the system they way that got them success last season. So they’re trying something different and it’s not working.